A charge coupled device having a meander channel is disclosed in Ohtsuki et al, "CCD With Meander Channel," Third International Conference on Technology and Applications of CCD's, 1976, pages 38-43. The Ohtsuki publication discloses a CCD having channel stops which define a meander channel in which charge transfer is controlled by two parallel linear electrodes disposed side-by-side over the meander channel and parallel to the channel. The electrodes are clocked by opposite phases of a two-phase clocking system. The disadvantage of such a device is that, if the electrodes overlap, they must be formed in different layers over the charge coupled device, so that they are mutually insulated. As a result, the two electrodes must be disposed at different heights over the charge flow channel, which creates an unsymmetrical surface potential distribution in the device. On the other hand, if the two linear electrodes are formed in the same conductive layer over the substrate, there must be an insulating gap between the two electrodes so that the two electrodes remain insulated from one another. As a result, no electrode directly overlies the gap, which causes instability in charge transfer under the gap.